


Pentacles, Protection, and Permanence

by kisahawklin



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Community: kink_bingo, Gen, Magic, Tattoos, writing on the body kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-20
Updated: 2010-06-20
Packaged: 2017-10-10 05:19:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander's thought about getting a tattoo since he was in high school. (Read end notes for warnings.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pentacles, Protection, and Permanence

He does it as a joke the first time, tracing the pentacle on the web between his thumb and first finger in Sharpie. It was the day Willow yelled at him for making some comment about a pentagram, schooled him about the protective power of pentacles and other symbols he'd always connected to devil-worship... before he knew there were real devils and demons and monsters and freaks who worshipped them.

It wore off after a few days, but Xander started thinking about a tattoo pretty seriously back in those days. Protection that couldn't fall off while you were staking somebody was the best kind of protection. He considered it, decided it might hurt his chances with the girls, then started dating Anya and reconsidered. Every time Willow or Tara cast a spell it came to mind; it was hard enough dealing with vampires and demons and other junk. He didn't want to be caught by friendly fire.

Tara was surprised when he mentioned it to her. "Having that sort of power on your body - if you do it right, I mean, do it as a real protection - it'll wear you down. The power has to come from somewhere, Xander, and you don't want your tattoo sucking the life out of you when there are plenty of vampires around willing to do it for free."

She'd smiled in that deceptively innocent way, and he wasn't sure if she was serious or not, but then she'd been shot and Xander would never be able to ask her, or be able to bring it up to Willow, either.

Then Willow went seriously bad and Xander thought it couldn't be worse, being eaten up by the thing that protects you, not worse than watching your best friend destroy herself, become something else entirely, something powerful and dark and murderous.

He got the tattoo the week after Willow returned to Sunnydale. She went with him, helped him pick the best spot (over his heart - and it made his pec look good, so he was glad he asked) , held his hand. He'd missed her; had been missing her for a long time before she went dark side, he realized. He held her hand and spent all his energy on manly stoicism. It didn't work that well for him, but it didn't matter. Willow never told anyone his secrets.

From time to time after that, Willow would rest her hand over his heart and the skin would tingle. He pretended not to notice, and Willow got stealthier with her touches. Before they faced off with The First, she hugged him tight and he felt energy flow from her to him - from her chest, her breasts two points of contact against him, which a few years ago would have been strange and hot but now was just strange - and it felt like his entire chest was on fire, but it also felt like he was invincible.

He excused himself and went to the bathroom, tearing his shirt off the second he was there and staring at his chest in the mirror. The tattoo was sparkling red, and it had grown tendrils, vine-looking things that wrapped themselves around his body and had symbols and words in dead languages intertwined in them. He said a brief prayer, desperately hoping that she hadn't wasted energy _she_ needed on his protection. He pulled his shirt down, and kissed her goodbye before they left.

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings:** Mention of a canon major character death.
> 
> For the [writing on the body](http://kink-wiki.dreamwidth.org/tag/writing+on+the+body) square on my [](http://kink-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**kink_bingo**](http://kink-bingo.dreamwidth.org/) [card](http://kate.dreamwidth.org/387628.html?#cutid1).


End file.
